Former attorney general Mukul Rohtagi, who represented the Indian government in court, also welcomed the judgement.

“The constitution is the highest law. All laws, including personal laws, must abide by constitutional guarantees and constitutional freedoms, including the right to live with dignity,” he said.

“There is no manner of doubt that this judgement will go in showing whole world, that we are progressive nation and the constitution applies with equal force to all, including Muslim women, and they will also walk without fear, just like women of other communities.”

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control,NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye on Tuesday recommended capital punishment for fake drugs manufacturers and dealers in the country.

According to the NAFDAC boss, this will serve as deterrent to those she labeled “merchants of death” and put an end to the unwholesome production and marketing of fake drugs.

Professor Adeyeye who.featured in a special interview programme on the Television and Radio Channels of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State, BCOS and monitored by Mega Icon magazine disclosed “NAFDAC is working on more intense punishment on fake and hard drugs.The existing penalty for drug pedlling is not stiff enough. I’m not against capital punishment for drug peddlers. Some hardened drug peddlers deserve capital punishment.

“We will not hesitate to close all the lines of companies falsifying drugs.The war on fake drugs is a marathon.It is all over the world.”

The NAFDAC Director-General while speaking on the prevalence rate of fake drugs in the country explained that “the prevalence rate of falsified products is about 10 per cent,meaning one in every 10 drugs being manufactured in Nigeria is fake.This figure is less worldwide.”

While x-raying the activities of the regulatory agency,she disclosed that in 2019,NAFDAC intercepted and destroyed fake drugs worth one point three trillion Naira adding that the Inspection and Enforcement Directorate of the agency is being strengthened to curb the activities of fake drug manufacturers and dealers.

On NAFDAC’s intervention in the global search for solution to the coronavirus pandemic,Professor Adeyeye said as a vibrant member of the global community,Nigeria is also in the race for global cure for COVID-19.

She said “clinical trial treatment is going on in different parts of the country. NAFDAC reviews protocol to ensure subjectand patient is protected.”

“For instance,the clinical trials going on in Lagos involves Chlo to qui me and other therapeautics.”

She added that about 90 countries are currently working on vaccine research and production but regretted that Nigeria which had been in the forefront of vaccine production for 50 years was not presently in the race.

The Professor of Pharmaceutics kicked against the use of foreign herbal medicine to cure the ravaging coronavirus in Nigeria,saying”we should search for our own local medicine which may have same effectiveness.

She however said the agency was still waiting for samples of Madagascar COVID Organics which will go through safety studies and possibly clinical trial to ascertain its safety for use by patients.

Professor Adeyeye while commenting on the possible benefits of chloroquine and remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19 said remdesivir is not yet commercially available and very expensive while the use of chloroquine is limited to clinical trial setting and not should be used unless prescribed by a physician.

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Noise Pollution: Oyo govt. calls for obedience to environmental laws

Residents of Oyo state have been enjoined to comply with environmental regulations of the State, especially as it relates to noise pollution.

A statement signed by the Commissioner for Environment and Natural resources, Hon. Kehinde Ayoola on Wednesday stated that noise pollution makes the environment unfriendly and as such creates severe influence on human mental and physical health.

Therefore, the Commissioner enjoined residents to abide with regulations, calling for cooperation by residents of the state.

“It is opined that adequate compliance would assist to foster better working relationship and conducive environment without confrontation and friction involving the parties”, the statement read.

Towards this end, the Oyo State Government, through the Ministry has mandated all block industry owners, night clubs, patent medicine sellers, churches, mosques, musical vendors, street dancers to henceforth reduce their noise to permissible level that complies with existing law of the state.

Hesitation to abide by this law, the statement read, would attract heavy penalties and wrath of the binding laws of Oyo state.

WHAT is not clear is the real motive why many Nigerian Youths are desperate to travel abroad. Instead of thinking of what to do within to make fortunes,it has always been a case of everyone trying to travel abroad. Even persons without any specialization or vocational training are not left out of the struggle to break any barrier to escape offshore.

Now adays,young Nigerians go to marriage registry across the country particularly Lagos State for marriage solemnization as part of formalities to secure the travelling documents.
One thing that is amazing about this new trend is that most of the adventurists go for aged women.It sounds somehow seeing a guy of thirty years old asking a woman old enough to be his mother or even grandma’s hand in marriage just to secure Visa to travel abroad.

Assuming most of these marriages are consummated as a product of true love and relationship the better.But the truth is that these guys do not love or sincere rather they are only interested in using the old women to perfect their travelling documents.Sometimes, what played out is nothing but a mere contract between the guys and the aged women.

However, the fact that most of the “arrangee marriages ” by young Nigerians are predisposing factors for sexually transmitted diseases call for caution.